1.
Rimfire ammunition
–
Rimfire is a method of ignition for metallic firearm cartridges as well as the cartridges themselves. It is called rimfire because the pin of a gun strikes and crushes the bases rim to ignite the primer. Once the rim of the cartridge has been struck and the bullet discharged, while many other different cartridge priming methods have been tried since the 19th century, only rimfire technology and centerfire technology survive today in significant use. Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented the first rimfire metallic cartridge in 1845 and his cartridge consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top and the idea was to improve the safety of indoor shooting. In English-speaking countries, the Flobert cartridge corresponds to.22 BB, Rimfire cartridges are limited to low pressures because they require a thin case so that the firing pin can crush the rim and ignite the primer. Rimfire cartridges of.44 caliber up to.56 caliber were once common when black powder was used as a propellant, however, modern rimfire cartridges use smokeless powder which generates much higher pressures and tend to be of.22 caliber or smaller. Rimfire cartridges are typically inexpensive, primarily due to the inherent cost-efficiency of the ability to manufacture the cartridges in large lots, the price of metals used in the cartridges increased in 2002, the prices of the ammunition then further increased in 2012 possibly due to hoarding. The idea of placing a priming compound in the rim of the cartridge evolved from an 1831 patent, by 1845, this had evolved into the Flobert.22 BB Cap, in which the priming compound is distributed just inside the rim. The.22 BB Cap is essentially just a percussion cap with a round ball pressed in the front, intended for use in an indoor gallery target rifle, it used no gunpowder, but relied entirely on the priming compound for propulsion. Its velocities were very low, comparable to an airgun, the next rimfire cartridge was the.22 Short, developed for Smith & Wessons first revolver, in 1857, it used a longer rimfire case and 4 grains of black powder to fire a conical bullet. This led to the.22 Long, with the bullet weight as the short. This was followed by the.22 Extra Long with a longer than the.22 Long. The.22 Long Rifle is a.22 Long case loaded with the heavier Extra Long bullet intended for performance in the long barrel of a rifle. Larger rimfire calibers were used during the American Civil War in the Henry Repeater, the Spencer Repeater, the Ballard rifle and the Frank Wesson carbine. The early 21st century has seen a revival in interest in rimfire cartridges, a new and increasingly popular rimfire, the 17 HMR is based on a.22 WMR casing with a smaller formed neck which accepts a.17 bullet. The advantages of the 17 HMR over.22 WMR and other rimfire cartridges are its much flatter trajectory, the.17 HM2 is based on the.22 Long Rifle and offers similar performance advantages over its parent cartridge, at a significantly higher cost. While.17 HM2 sells for about four times the cost of.22 Long Rifle ammunition, it is significantly cheaper than most centerfire ammunition. A notable rimfire cartridge that is still in production in Europe and this cartridge can fire a small ball, but is primarily loaded with a small amount of shot, and used in smoothbore guns as a miniature shotgun, or garden gun
2.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Winchester Repeating Arms Company
–
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American maker of repeating firearms, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The ancestor of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was the Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson partnership of Norwich, Jennings rifle was a commercial failure, and Robbins & Lawrence ceased production in 1852. Smith designed a much-improved rifle based on Jennings, and the partners also hired away Robbins & Lawrence shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. In 1855 the Smith & Wesson partnership, in order to manufacture what they called the Volcanic lever-action rifle and pistol, sought investors and its largest stockholder was clothing manufacturer Oliver Winchester. The Volcanic rifle had only limited success, the company moved to New Haven in 1856, but by the end of that year became insolvent. Oliver Winchester and his partner John M. Davies purchased the firms assets from the remaining stockholders. After Smiths departure Benjamin Henry continued to work with a Smith development project, the self-contained metallic rimfire cartridge, Henry also supervised a new rifle design based loosely on the Volcanic to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, the Henry rifle ensured New Haven Arms success, and together with the Spencer rifle established the lever-action repeater in the firearms market. In 1866 Benjamin Henry, angered over what he believed was inadequate compensation, Oliver Winchester, hastening back from Europe, forestalled the move and reorganized New Haven Arms yet again as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Another extremely popular model was rolled out in 1873, the Model 1873 introduced the first Winchester center fire cartridge, the. 44-40 WCF. These rifle families are known as the Gun That Won the West. The Model 1873 was followed by the Model 1876, a version of the 73. It was chambered for longer, more powerful cartridges such as. 45-60 WCF. 45-75 WCF, Oliver Winchester died in December 1880, his son and successor, William Wirt Winchester, died of tuberculosis four months later. William Wirt Winchesters widow, Sarah Winchester, used her inheritance, several of these are still in production today through companies such as Browning, Rossi, Navy Arms and others which have revived several of the discontinued models or produced reproductions. The early years of the century found the Winchester Repeating Arms Company competing with new John Browning designs. The race to produce the first commercial self-loading rifle brought forth the.22 rimfire Winchester Model 1903 and later centerfire Model 1905, Model 1907, and Model 1910 rifles. Winchester engineers, after ten years of work, designed the Model 1911 to circumvent Brownings self-loading shotgun patents, one of Winchesters premier engineers, T. C. Johnson, was instrumental in the development of these self-loading firearms and went on to superintend the designs of Winchesters classic Model 1912, Model 52 and Model 54
4.
Rifling
–
In firearms, rifling consists of helical grooves in the internal surface of a guns barrel, which impart a spin to a projectile around its long axis. This spin serves to stabilize the projectile, improving its aerodynamic stability. Rifling is often described by its twist rate, which indicates the distance the rifling takes to complete one revolution, such as 1 turn in 10 inches. A shorter distance indicates a faster twist, meaning that for a given velocity the projectile will be rotating at a spin rate. Barrels intended for long, small-diameter bullets, such as the ultra-low-drag, 80-grain 0.223 inch bullets, extremely long projectiles such as flechettes may require high twist rates, these projectiles must be inherently stable, and are often fired from a smoothbore barrel. Muskets were smoothbore, large caliber weapons using ball-shaped ammunition fired at low velocity. Due to the high cost and great difficulty of manufacturing, and the need to load readily from the muzzle. Consequently, on firing the ball bounced off the sides of the barrel when fired, barrel rifling was invented in Augsburg, Germany in 1498. In 1520 August Kotter, an armourer of Nuremberg, Germany improved upon this work, though true rifling dates from the mid-16th century, it did not become commonplace until the nineteenth century. The most successful weapons using rifling with black powder were breech loaders such as the Queen Anne pistol, the grooves most commonly used in modern rifling have fairly sharp edges. More recently, polygonal rifling, a throwback to the earliest types of rifling, has become popular, polygonal barrels tend to have longer service lives because the reduction of the sharp edges of the land reduces erosion of the barrel. Supporters of polygonal rifling also claim higher velocities and greater accuracy, polygonal rifling is currently seen on pistols from CZ, Heckler & Koch, Glock, Tanfoglio, and Kahr Arms, as well as the Desert Eagle. Such guns have achieved significant increases in velocity and range. Examples include the South African G5 and the German PzH2000, gain-twist rifling begins with very little change in the projectiles angular momentum during the first few inches of bullet travel after ignition during the transition from chamber to throat. This enables the bullet to remain undisturbed and trued to the case mouth. After engaging the rifling the bullet is progressively subjected to accelerated angular momentum as burning powder propels it down the barrel. By only gradually increasing the rate, torque is spread along a much longer section of barrel. Gain-twist rifling was used as early as the American Civil War, colt Army and Navy revolvers both employed gain-twist rifling
5.
.17 HMR
–
.17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, commonly known as the.17 HMR, is a rimfire rifle cartridge developed by the ammunition company Hornady in 2002. It descended from the.22 Magnum by necking down the.22 Magnum case to take a.17 caliber projectile, commonly loaded with a 17 grain projectile, it can deliver muzzle velocities in excess of 775 m/s. The.17 HMR round is similar to rounds developed by dedicated rimfire wildcatters who worked to create a cartridge with an exceptionally flat trajectory. With 5mm diameter barrels and bullets being virtually unavailable at the time, the commercially available.17 caliber became their bullet of choice. The.22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire was the parent case, rather than 5mm RMR, because it was commonly available. The.17 caliber wildcats not only met, but far exceeded the 5 mm RMRs velocities, the accuracy of these cartridges was also quite good. However, the energy of the 5mm RMR is superior to both.22 WMR and.17 HMR, so there is still potential in the 5mm rimfire for wildcatters. Hornady, in conjunction with Marlin Firearms and Sturm, Ruger, with the.22 WMR case as the starting point, a simple barrel change was sufficient for most.22 WMR firearms to chamber the new cartridge. In 2002 the first rifles and ammunition began appearing on the market, while the ammunition was relatively expensive due to the high-performance.17 caliber bullets used, it was still cheaper than most centerfire ammunition. By 2004 CCI, Federal Cartridge and Remington had each introduced.17 HMR ammunition offerings. Cartridges for.17 HMR come with bullets that weigh 15. 5-grain, 17-grain, and 20-grain, and come in such as polymer tipped, hollow points, soft points. A growing number of companies offer.17 HMR ammunition, CCI Ammunition loads all of the.17 HMR ammunition for the CCI, Federal Cartridge, Hornady, and Remington brands. However, the ammunition is loaded with different bullets to different specifications, Ammunition is also available from Winchester, PMC and Sellier & Bellot. Citing safety concerns about the use in semi-automatic firearms, Remington issued a product safety warning. Higher velocity, 2350-2550fps compared to the popular ≈1255fps. 22LR High Velocity, Flatter trajectory Longer range As the round is faster there is less chance of ricochet due to bullet break up at shorter ranges More expensive. Overly destructive at close range for small game, faster flight, 2350-2550fps compared to the Hornady 2200fps 22Wmr 30gr rounds Flatter trajectory Longer range. The.17 HM2 is based on the.22 LR case necked down to.17 caliber using the bullet as the HMR. 4 mm caliber Table of handgun and rifle cartridges 4. 5×26mm MKR Varmint Als Field Testing the.17 HMR
6.
Coyote
–
The coyote is a canid native to North America. It is smaller than its relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than its other close relatives, the eastern wolf. It fills much of the ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Eurasia, though it is larger. The species is versatile and able to adapt to environments modified by humans, as human activity has altered the landscape, the coyotes range has expanded. In 2013, coyotes were sighted in eastern Panama for the first time, the coyote is more closely related to the common ancestor of wolves and other canids than the gray wolf. As of 2005,19 coyote subspecies are recognized, the average male coyote weighs 8 to 20 kg and the average female 7 to 18 kg. Their fur color is light gray and red or fulvous interspersed with black and white. It is highly flexible in organization, living either in a family unit or in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. The coyotes characteristic vocalization is a made by solitary individuals. Humans aside, cougars and gray wolves are the only serious enemies. Nevertheless, coyotes do sometimes mate with gray, eastern, or red wolves, Most recent studies show that most wolves contain some level of coyote DNA. As with other figures, the coyote uses deception and humor to rebel against social conventions. The animal was especially respected in Mesoamerican cosmology as a symbol of military might, after the European colonization of the Americas, it was reviled in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves, which have undergone an improvement of their public image, Coyote males average 8 to 20 kg in weight, while females average 7 to 18 kg, though size varies geographically. Northern subspecies, which average 18 kg, tend to larger than the southern subspecies of Mexico. Body length ranges on average from 1.0 to 1.35 m, the largest coyote on record was a male killed near Afton, Wyoming, on November 19,1937, which measured 1.5 m from nose to tail, and weighed 34 kg. Scent glands are located at the side of the base of the tail and are a bluish-black color. The color and texture of the fur varies somewhat geographically
7.
Pump action
–
A pump-action or slide-action firearm is one in which a forend can be moved forward and backward in order to eject a spent round of ammunition and to chamber a fresh one. It is much faster than a bolt-action and somewhat faster than a lever-action, once fired, the forend is slid rearward by hand and the expended cartridge ejected. It is then reloaded by manually moving the forend to the front, the first slide action patent was issued to Alexander Bain of Britain in 1854. This technique is called a slamfire, and was used in conjunction with the M1897 in the First World Wars trench warfare. Semi-automatic shotguns must use some of the energy of each round fired to cycle their actions, in addition, like all manual action guns, pump-action guns are inherently more reliable than semi-automatic guns under adverse conditions, such as exposure to dirt, sand, or climatic extremes. Thus, until recently, military combat shotguns were almost exclusively pump-action designs, the cycling time of a pump-action is quite short. The manual operation gives a pump-action the ability to cycle rounds of varying power that a gas or recoil operated firearm would fail to cycle. The simplicity of the relative to a semi-automatic design also leads to improved durability. It has also noticed that the time taken to work the action allows the operator to identify and aim on a new target. However, most are not truly ambidextrous, as the spent casing is ejected out the side in most designs, like most lever-action rifles, most pump-action shotguns and rifles do not use a detachable magazine. This makes for slow reloading, as the cartridges have to be inserted individually into the firearm, however, some pump action shotguns and rifles, such as the Russian Zlatoust RB-12, Italian Valtro PM5 and the American Remington 7600 series use detachable box magazines. A pump-action firearm is fed from a tubular magazine underneath the barrel. The rounds are fed in one by one through a port in the receiver, a latch at the rear of the magazine holds the rounds in place in the magazine until they are needed. If it is desired to load the gun fully, a round may be loaded through the port directly into the chamber, or cycled from the magazine. Pump shotguns with box magazines or even drums exist. Nearly all pump-actions use a motion of the forend to cycle the action. The forend is connected to the bolt by one or two bars, two bars are considered reliable because it provides symmetric forces on the bolt and pump. The motion of the back and forth in a tubular magazine model will also operate the elevator
8.
Smith & Wesson
–
Smith & Wesson is a manufacturer of firearms in the United States. The corporate headquarters are based in Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1852, Smith & Wessons pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world, in addition to their popularity among sport shooters. Apart from firearms, Smith & Wesson has been known for the types of ammunition it has introduced over the years. Wesson founded the Smith & Wesson Company in Norwich, Connecticut in 1852 to develop the Volcanic rifle, Smith developed a new Volcanic Cartridge, which he patented in 1854. The Smith & Wesson Company was renamed Volcanic Repeating Arms in 1855, Smith left the company and returned to his native Springfield, Massachusetts, Wesson stayed on as plant manager with Volcanic Repeating Arms. As Samuel Colts patent on the revolver was set to expire in 1856 and his research pointed out that a former Colt employee named Rollin White held the patent for a Bored-through cylinder, a component he would need for his invention. Wesson reconnected with Smith and the two partners approached White to manufacture a newly designed revolver-and-cartridge combination, rather than make White a partner in their company, Smith and Wesson paid him a royalty of $0.25 on every revolver that they made. It would become Whites responsibility to defend his patent in any court cases which led to his financial ruin. The orders for the Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver outpaced the production capabilities. In 1860 demand was so great that Smith & Wesson expanded into a new facility, at the same time, the companys design was being infringed upon by other manufacturers which led to numerous lawsuits filed by Rollin White. In many of these part of the restitution came in the form of the offender being forced to stamp Manufactured for Smith & Wesson on the revolvers in question. Whites vigorous defense of his patent caused a problem for armsmakers in the United States at the time as they could not manufacture cartridge revolvers, at the end of the war the US Government charged White with causing the retardation of arms development in America. Demand for revolvers declined at the close of the Civil War, in 1870 the company introduced a large frame revolver in heavier calibers than the pocket sized revolvers it had been making. The design was known as the Smith & Wesson Model 3, after an organized campaign by the NRA and NSSF, thousands of retailers and tens of thousands of firearms consumers boycotted Smith & Wesson. On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million. The acquisition of Smith & Wesson was chiefly brokered by Saf-T-Hammer President Bob Scott, after the purchase, Scott became the president of Smith & Wesson to guide the 157-year-old company back to its former standing in the market. On 15 February 2002, the name of the newly formed entity was changed to Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, about 2006 Smith & Wesson refocused its marketing on big box retailers, according to Smith & Wesson CEO Mike Golden in a 2008 conference call with investors. In December 2014, Smith & Wesson Holding announced it was paying $130.5 million for Battenfeld Technologies, the company made the acquisition with the eventual intent to merge all its existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson Center Arms accessories into a single division
9.
Sturm, Ruger & Co.
–
Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. is an American, Southport, Connecticut–based firearm manufacturing company, better known by the shortened name Ruger. The company was founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B, Ruger and has been publicly traded since 1969. Ruger produces bolt-action, semi-automatic, and single-shot rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, Sturm, Ruger & Company was founded by William B. Ruger and Alexander McCormick Sturm in 1949 in a small rented shop in Southport. Ruger is a dominant manufacturer in the.22 LR rimfire rifle market in the U. S. due primarily to the sales of its Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic rifle, the 10/22 is very popular due to being relatively inexpensive and of good quality. As a result, a wealth of after-market accessories and parts were available for it. The availability and variety of after-market parts makes it possible to build a 10/22 using only these parts, Ruger similarly dominates the.22 rimfire semi-automatic pistol market with the Ruger MK II and Ruger MK III, descendants of the Ruger Standard pistol. Like the 10/22, the MkII is supported with a variety of after-market accessories. The 22/45 is similar to the Ruger Standard family of pistols but features a different grip angle, Ruger Casting has plants in Newport, New Hampshire and Prescott, Arizona, making ferrous, ductile iron and commercial titanium castings. Ruger Golf makes steel and titanium castings for golf clubs made by a number of different brands, Sturm, Ruger stock has been publicly traded since 1969, and became a New York Stock Exchange company in 1990. After Alex Sturm’s death in 1951, William B, Ruger continued to direct the company until his death in 2002. From 1949 through 2004, Ruger manufactured over 20 million firearms, and currently offers models for hunting, target shooting, self-defense, collecting, and law enforcement. Sturm, Ruger & Co. is headquartered in Southport, Connecticut, and maintains manufacturing facilities in Newport, New Hampshire, Prescott, Arizona, and Mayodan, North Carolina. Rugers subsidiaries are Ruger Precision Metals LLC in Earth City, Missouri, Pine Tree Castings in Newport, New Hampshire, and Ruger Sportswear & Accessories in Mayodan, North Carolina. Of the total 2,288 makers of civilian firearms operating in the United States from 1986–2010, Ruger was ranked the number one U. S. firearms manufacturer from 2008–2011. In 2011, Ruger manufactured 1,114,687 firearms, as their promotion, the company has set a new goal of 2 million firearms produced per year. From 2009 to 2012, Ruger was the top-seller of handguns, list of modern armament manufacturers TALO Distributors Wilson, R. L. Ruger & His Guns, A History of the Man, the Company and Their Firearms. Sturm, Ruger & Co official site Ruger Official History
10.
Combination gun
–
A combination gun is a break-action hunting firearm that comprises at least one rifled barrel and one shotgun barrel. Combination guns using one rifle and one shotgun barrel usually are in an over and under configuration, side-by-side versions are referred to as cape guns. A drilling is a gun that has three barrels. Combination guns generally use rimmed cartridges, as rimless cartridges are difficult to extract from a break-action weapon. Combination guns have a history in Europe, Africa, and Asia. These guns are almost exclusively hunting arms, as a result, they are popular with gamekeepers who often need the flexibility of the combination gun during their normal duties. The earliest combination guns were called swivel guns, which used a set of barrels designed to rotate to either the rifled or smooth-bore barrel to line up with a flintlock mechanism. Modern combination guns tend to resemble double-barreled shotguns and double rifles, combination guns generally have a selector that allows the user to choose which barrel will fire. Drillings with two barrels and one rifle barrel may have two triggers, one for each shotgun barrel, and a selector that will allow one trigger to fire the rifle barrel. Four-barrel versions known as Vierlings generally have two triggers, and selectors to switch each between shotgun and rifle, combination guns are over/under designs, usually with a shotgun barrel over a rifle barrel. Iron sights are used for aiming the rifle, and the front sight alone is sufficient to point the shotgun. Scope mounts are available, sometimes with a cutout for aiming the shotgun barrels, however, the thinness of the shotgun barrels that are usually on top make the scope mounting awkward. An interesting combination gun is the Ithaca M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon and a civilian version Springfield Armory M6 Scout, a cape gun is a side-by-side version of a combination gun, and is typically European in origin. These were at one time popular in southern Africa where a variety of game could be encountered. British versions are chambered for the.303 British service cartridge. German and Austrian cape guns have the barrel on the right side. The front trigger is usually a set trigger as well, the German and Austrian versions are commonly chambered in 9. 3×74mmR and 16-gauge, although they were chambered in a wide variety of rifle and shotgun cartridges. The most common layout was a shotgun with a centerfire rifle barrel centered on the bottom
11.
Shotgun
–
Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5. A shotgun is generally a smoothbore firearm, which means that the inside of the barrel is not rifled, preceding smoothbore firearms, such as the musket, were widely used by armies in the 18th century. The direct ancestor to the shotgun, the blunderbuss, was used in a similar variety of roles from self-defense to riot control. It was often used by cavalry troops because of its shorter length and ease of use. In the 19th century, however, these weapons were replaced on the battlefield with breechloading rifled firearms. The military value of shotguns was rediscovered in the First World War, since then, it has been used in a variety of roles in civilian, law enforcement, and military applications. The shot pellets from a spread upon leaving the barrel, and the power of the burning charge is divided among the pellets. In a hunting context, this makes shotguns useful primarily for hunting birds, however, in a military or law enforcement context, the large number of projectiles makes the shotgun useful as a close quarters combat weapon or a defensive weapon. Militants or insurgents may use shotguns in asymmetric engagements, as shotguns are commonly owned civilian weapons in many countries, shotguns are also used for target shooting sports such as skeet, trap, and sporting clays. These involve shooting clay disks, known as clay pigeons, thrown in various ways, shotguns come in a wide variety of forms, from very small up to massive punt guns, and in nearly every type of firearm operating mechanism. The common characteristics that make a unique center around the requirements of firing shot. These features are the typical of a shotgun shell, namely a relatively short, wide cartridge, with straight walls. Ammunition for shotguns is referred to in the USA as shotgun shells, shotshells, the term cartridges is standard usage in the United Kingdom. The shot is fired from a smoothbore barrel, another configuration is the rifled slug barrel. The typical use of a shotgun is against small and fast moving targets, the spreading of the shot allows the user to point the shotgun close to the target, rather than having to aim precisely as in the case of a single projectile. The disadvantages of shot are limited range and limited penetration of the shot, which is why shotguns are used at short ranges, and typically against smaller targets. Larger shot sizes, up to the case of the single projectile slug load, result in increased penetration. Aside from the most common use against small, fast moving targets, First, it has enormous stopping power at short range, more than nearly all handguns and many rifles
12.
.22 Long Rifle
–
The.22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long-established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as.22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have been manufactured in this caliber. American firearms manufacturer J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company introduced the cartridge in 1887 by combining the casing of the.22 Long with the 40-grain bullet of the.22 Extra Long. The round owes its origin to the Flobert BB cap of 1845 through the.22 Smith & Wesson cartridge of 1857 and it is one of the few cartridges that are accepted by a large variety of rifles, as well as pistols. The.22 Long Rifle and related cartridges use a bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter as the case. Low cost, minimal recoil, and relatively low noise make the.22 LR an ideal cartridge for recreational shooting, initial training, small-game hunting. Used by Boy Scouts for the rifle shooting merit badge, the cartridge is popular among novice shooters, a wide variety of rimfire ammunition is available commercially, and the available ammunition varies widely both in price and performance. Bullet weights among commercially available range from 20 to 60 grains. Promotional loads for plinking can be purchased in bulk for significantly less cost than precision target rounds, the low cost of ammunition has a substantial effect on the popularity of the.22 LR. For this reason, rimfire cartridges are used for target practice. The low recoil of the cartridge makes it ideal for introductory firearms courses, novice shooters can be surprised or frightened by the recoil of more powerful rounds. Beginners shooting firearms beyond their comfort level frequently develop a habit of flinching in an attempt to counter anticipated recoil, the resulting habit impedes correct posture and follow-through at the most critical phase of the shot and is difficult to correct. With high recoil eliminated, other errors in marksmanship technique are easier to identify, available for this round are AR-15 upper receivers and M1911 slide assemblies. Many handgun manufacturers have an upper pistol conversion kit to make it shoot.22 ammunition and these rimfire conversions allow shooters to practice inexpensively while retaining the handling characteristics of their chosen firearms. Additionally.22 conversion kits allow practice at indoor ranges which prohibit high-power firearms, annual production is estimated by some at 2–2.5 billion rounds. The NSSF estimates that half of the US production of 10 billion cartridges is composed of. 22LR, performance varies between barrel length and the type of action. For example, bolt-action rifles may perform differently from semiautomatic rifles, the.22 LR is effective to 150 yd, though practical ranges tend to be less. After 150 yd, the ballistics of the round are such that it will be difficult to compensate for the large drop, the relatively short effective range, low report, and light recoil has made it a favorite for use as a target-practice cartridge
